Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	bind_v	church_n	loose_v	6,945	5	10.4606	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B06539	Nicholas Machiavel's letter to Zanobius Buondelmontius in vindication of himself and his writings..	Neville, Henry, 1620-1694.; Machiavelli, Niccolò, 1469-1527.; Wharton, Thomas Wharton, Marquess of, 1648?-1715.	1700 (1700)	Wing W1578; ESTC R186416	17,636	13

writting to the Christians of those times almost in every Epistle commands them to be obedient to the Higher Powers or Magistrates set over them and St. Peter himself from whom this extravagant Empire is pretended to be derived in his first Epistle bids us submit our selves to every ordinance of man for the LORDS sake whether it be to the King or c. and this is enjoyn'd although it is plain that they who govern'd the World in those days were both Heathens Tyrants and Usurpers and in this submission there is no exception or proviso for Ecclesiastical immunity The practice as well as precepts of those Holy Men shews plainly that they had no intention to leave Successors who should deprive Hereditary Princes from their right of Reigning for differing in Religion who without all doubt are by the appointment of the Apostle and by the principles of Christianity to be obeyed and submitted to in things wherein the fundamental Laws of the Government give them power though they were Jews or Gentiles If I should tell you by what Texts in Scripture the Popes claim the powers before mentioned it would stir up your laughter and prove too light for so serious a matter yet because possibly you have never heard so much of this subject before I shall instance in a few They tell you therefore that the Jurisdiction they pretend over the Church and the power of pardoning sins comes from CHRIST to St. Peter and from him to them Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church I will give thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth c. From these two Texts ridiculously applyed comes this great Tree which hath with its branches over-spread the whole Earth and kill'd all the good and wholsome Plants growing upon it The first Text will never by any man of sence be understood to say more than that the Preaching Suffering and Ministry of Peter was like to be a great foundation and Pillar of the Doctrine of Christ the other Text as also another spoken by our Saviour to all his Apostles whose sins ye remit they are remitted and whose sins ye retain they are retained are all by the primitive Fathers interpreted in this manner wheresoever you shall effectually preach the Gospel you shall carry with you Grace and Remission of sins to them which shall follow your instructions but the people who shal not have these joyful Tidings communicated by you to them shall remain in darkness and in their sins But if any will contest that by some of these last Texts that Evangelical Excommunication which was afterwards brought into the Church by the Apostles was here praesignified by our great Master how unlike were those censures to those now thundered out as he calls it by the Pope these were for edification and not destruction to afflict the flesh for the salvation of the Soul that the Apostolical Ordinance was pronounced for some notorious Scandal or Apostacy from the Faith and first decreed by the Church that is the whole Congregation present and then denounced by the Pastor and reached only to debar such persons from partaking of the Communion or fellowship of that Church till Repentance should re-admit him but was followed by no other prosecution or chastisement as is now practised But suppose all these Texts had been as they would have them how does this make for the Successors of St. Peter or the rest Or how can this prove the Bishops of Rome to have right to such Succession But I make haste from this subject and shal urge but one Text more which is the spiritual man judgeth all men but is himself judged of none from whence is inferred by the Canonists that first the Pope is the Spiritual man and then that he is to be Judge of all the World and last that he is never to belyable to any judgment himself whereas it is obvious to the meanest understanding St. Paul in this text means to distinguish between a person inspired with the Spirit of God and one remaining in the state of Nature which latter he sayes cannot judge of those Heavenly gifts and graces as he explains himself when he sayes The Natural man cannot discern the things of the Spirit because they are foolishness unto him To take my leave of this matter wholly out of the way of my Studies I shall beg of you Zenobio and of Guilio and the rest of our Society to read over carefully the New Testament and then to see what ground there is for Purgatory by which all the wealth and greatness hath accrew'd to these men what colour for the Idolatrous worship of Saints and their Images and particularly for speaking in their hymes and prayers to a peice of wood the Cross Imean Salve Lignum c. and then fac nos dignos beneficiorum Christi as you may read in that Office what colour or rather what excuse for that horrid unchristian and barbarous Engine called the inquisition brought in by the command and authority of the Pope the inventor of which Peter a Dominican Fryer having been slain amongst the Albigesi as he well deserved is now Cannoniz'd for a Saint and stil'd San Pietro Martine In the dreadfull Prisons of this Inquisition many faithfull and pious Christians to say nothing of honest Moral Moors or Mahometans are tormented and famish'd or if they out-live their sufferings burnt quickly to death and that only for differing in Religion from the Pope without having any crime or the least misdemeanor proved or alledged against them and this is inflicted upon these poor Creatures by those who profess to believe the Scripture which tells us that faith is the gift of God without whose speciall illumination no man can obtain it and therefore is not in reason or humanity to be punished for wanting it And Christ himself hath so clearly decided that point in bidding us let the tares and the wheat grow together till the Harvest that I shall never make any difficulty to call him Antichrist who shall use the least persecution whatsoever agianst any differing in matters of faith from himself whether the person so dissenting be Heretick Jew Gentile or Mahometan Next I beseech you to observe in reading that Holy Book though Christian fasts are doubtless of Divine right what ground there is for enjoying fish to be eaten at least flesh to be abstained from for one third part of the year by which they put the poor to great hardship who not having purses to buy wholsom fish are subjected to all the miseries and diseases incident to a bad and unhealthful dyet whilst the rich and chiefly themselves and their Cardinals exceed Lucullus in their Luxury of Oysters Turbats tender Crabs and Carpioni brought some hundreds of miles to feed their gluttony upon these penetential days of abstinence from Beeff and Pork It may be it

fear of confutation for I firmly believe that there are none but Flatterers and Sophisters would oppose me such as will rest Aristotle and even Plato himself to make them write for Monarchy by misapplying some loose passages in those great Authors nay will tell their Readers that what is most like the Government of the World by GOD is the best which wholly depends upon his absolute Power to make this comparison run with four feet these Sycophants must give the poor Prince they intend to Diefie a better and superior Nature to Humanity must Creat a necessary dependance of all Creatures upon him must endue him with infinite wisdom and goodness and even with Omnipotency it self It will be hard for any man to be misled in this Argument by proofs wrested from Theology since whosoever reads attentively the Historical part of the Old Testament shall find that GOD himself never made but one Government for men that this Government was a Common-wealth wherein the Sanchadrim or Senate and the Congregation or popular Assembly had their share and that he manifested his high displeasure when the rebellious people would turn it into a Monarchy but that I may not stricke upon the rock I profess to shun I shall pass to that which is fit indeed to be wip'd off and which if it were true would not only justly expose me to the hatred and vengeance of GOD and all good men but even destroy the design and purpose of all my Writings which is to treat in some sort as well as one of my small parts can hope to do of the Politicks And how can any man pretend to write concerning Policy who destroyes the most essential part of it which is obedience to all Governments It will be very easie then for Guilio Salviati or any other member of our Society to believe the Protestation I make that the animating of private men either directly or indirectly to disobey much less to shake off any government how dispotical soever was never in my Thoughts or Writings those who are unwilling to give credit to this may take the pains to assign in any of my Books the passages they imagine to tend that way for I can think of none my self that so I may give such persons more particular satisfaction I must confess I have a discourse in one of my Books to encourage the Italian Nation to assume their ancient valour and to expel the Barbarians meaning as the ancient Romans used the word all Strangers from amongst us but that was before the Kings of Spain had quiet possession of the Kingdom of Naples or the Emperour of the Dutchy of Milan so that I could not be interpreted to mean that the people of those two Dominions should be stir'd up to shake off their Princes because they were Forreigners since at that time Lodovie Sforza was in possession of the one and K. Frederick restored to the other both Natives of Italy but my design was to exhort our Countrey-men not to suffer this Province to be the Scene of the Arms and ambition of Charles the 8th or K. Lewis his Successour who when they had a mind to renew the old Title of the House of Anjou to the Kingdom of Naples came with such force into Italy that not only our goods were plundered and our Lands wasted but even the liberty of our Cities and Governments endangered but to unite and oppose them and to keep this Province in the hands of Princes of our own Nation this my intention is so visible in the Chapter it self that I need but refer you to it Yet that I may not answer this imputation barely by denying I shall assert in this place what my principles are in that which the World calls Rebellion which I believe to be not only rising in Arms against any government we live under but to acknowledge that word to extend to all clandestine Conspiracies too by which the peace and quiet of any Countrey may be interrupted and by consequence the Lives and Estates of innocent Persons endangered Rebellion then so described I hold to be the greatest crime that can be committed amongst men both against Policy Morality and in foro Conscientiae but notwithstanding all this it is an offence which will be commited whilst the World lasts as often as Princes tyrannize and by enslaving and oppressing their Subjects make Magistracy which was intended for the benefit of Mankind prove a Plague and Destruction to it for let the terrour and the guilt be never so great it is impossible that Humane Nature which consists of Passion as well as Virtue can support with patience and submission the greatest cruelty and injustice when ever either the weakness of their Princes the unamity of the People or any other favourable accident shall give them reasonable hopes to mend their condition and provide better for their own interest by insurrection So that Princes and States ought in the Conduct of their Affairs not only to consider what their people are bound to submit to if they were inspired from Heaven or were all Moral Philosophers but to weigh likewise what is probable de facto to fall out in this corrupt age of the World and to reflect upon those dangerous Tumults which have happened frequently not only upon oppression but even by reason of Malversation and how some Monarchies have been wholly subverted and changed into Democracies by the Tyranny of Princes as we see to say nothing of Rome the powerful Cantons of Swisserland brought by that means a little before the last age to a considerable Common-wealth courted and sought to by all the Potentats in Christendom If Princes will seriously consider this matter I make no question but they will Rule with Clemency and Moderation and return to that excellent Maxim of the Ancients almost exploded in this Age that the interest of Kings and of their People is the same which truth it hath been the whole desin of my Writings to convince them of I am charged then in the second place with impiety and villifying the Church and so to make way for Atheism I do not deny but that I have very frequently in my Writings laid the blame upon the Church of Rome not only for all the misgovernment of Christendom but even for the depravation and almost total destruction of Christian Religion it self in this Province but that this discourse of mine doth or can tend to teach men impiety or to make way for Atheism I preremptorily deny and although for proof of my innocence herein I need but refer you and all others to my Papers themselves as they are now published where you will find all my reasons drawn from experience and frequent examples cited which is ever my way of arguing yet since I am put upon it I shall in a few lines make that matter possibly a little clearer and shall first make protestation That as I do undoubtedly hope by the Merits of CHRIST and by Faith in